reflections on surviving and thriving in Western secular higher education today

John Piper

In a previous post we introduced the idea of the “combs and mirrors” of the academic life, those trinkets and baubles that can turn our head and lead us away from Christ, his kingdom and his values. Here is a powerful passage from John Piper, sketching the same idea in vivid terms:

The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife (Luke 14:18-20). The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable